When sponsor’s pet tussles with backer’s bet

Literally hundreds of young talents do their darnedest to become show biz stars, but only a handful succeed. What do they have that the others don’t? A major factor appears to be connections.

They have powerful “sponsors” or backers who make sure that they get the best roles in the most attention-calling projects, so that they’re constantly in the public eye—laughing all the way to the bank!

Sexual favors

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How do they become “favored” talents, while most of their contemporaries languish in near-anonymity?

Romantic or sexual favors may be exchanged, or their handlers may get a hefty fee for their “additional” services, which include getting on the good side of the studio and network executives, any which way.

In a few cases, no personal favors or considerations are involved, only executives’ realization that most of the talent’s past starrers have clicked with viewers, so he or she should be rewarded for being their “lucky charm.”

Most of the time, however, personal favors are involved, so the young star is assured of stellar employment—while the supply lasts!

There comes the time, however, when the favored star loses his youth and bloom, so his “sponsor” looks for “fresher” talents to support and subsidize.

Ungrateful brats

Or else, the sponsored talent becomes spoiled and ungrateful, so a replacement is sought and found, to teach the erring starlet a painful lesson, and to remind him that he owes his stardom not to his innate stellar abilities, but to his generous sponsor!

Some favored talents don’t displease their sponsors, so they keep going from one stellar project to another. In fact, some of them are so busy that they have two regular drama series ongoing (at different times of the day or night). Since the stars aren’t exactly famous for their thespic versatility, viewers wonder why they’re so “in demand.”

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Well, wonder no more.

But, what happens when one well-placed sponsor’s pet tussles with another backer’s bet? The industry holds its collective breath as it awaits the outcome of the resulting “battle of connections!”

Not too long ago, the gay sponsor turned out to be more powerful than the lesbian backer, hence the survivor was—the boy toy!

Beneficiaries

But not to worry, the “loser” was soon given another project to soothe her bruised feelings—and loss of pride of place.

This may just be “business as usual” for the entertainment industry, but viewers should realize that they are the losers here, because both the sponsors and their boy or girl toys benefit from the arrangement, but the members of the audience are left—holding the bag!

They have to tolerate inferior performances of inadequate actors who just happen to be favored by some studio executives for a number of very subjective reasons.

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